DOCSLIB.ORG

Roundup-History

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Roundup-History Year 9 History - Remembering the First World War Centenary of the Arrival of the Unknown Warrior at Victoria Station – 10 November 2020 Every year on 10 November, the Western Front Association holds a service of remembrance at Victoria Station to commemorate the arrival, in 1920, of the Unknown Warrior on his journey to Westminster Abbey. Because this year is the centenary of this happening, the Western Front Association is asking Year 9 students to write a letter to the Unknown Warrior. You can write as yourself, a young person in 2020, looking back on the First World War or you could pretend to be someone living in 1920 who has lost someone important to you in the war: a brother, a father or a friend perhaps. If you would like to take part in this commemoration then you need to write a letter of no more than 500 words and email it to your class teacher by November 1st, 2020. The Association will publish the most interesting and thoughtful letters on their website and in their magazine and offer some small prizes. The Story When the First World War ended in 1918, about 800,000 British and colonial troops had died and another 200,000 were “missing”. Some of these were prisoners but most were dead: either they could not be identified or they were never found. The men and women who died abroad in the war were buried there and many had “no known grave” so that families in Britain were rarely able to visit a grave to mourn for the people that had lost. In 1916, while he was in Northern France, the Reverend David Railton came upon a grave in someone’s back garden which had a marker with the words “An Unknown British Soldier of the Black Watch” written on it in pencil. It gave him an idea. Perhaps one of these unknown soldiers could be brought back to Britain and represent all those who were lost. After the war, he was able to persuade the King and the Prime Minister that this should happen. It was important that the chosen Unknown Warrior could never be identified. To do this, on 7 November, the remains of four unidentified soldiers were brought to a chapel in Saint-Pol- sur-Ternoise in northern France. They had been taken from four of the battlefields in France and Belgium: the Somme, Ypres, the Aisne and Arras. They were laid on stretchers and covered with Union flags so no one could see anything that would give a clue about who they were. Brigadier General Louis John Wyatt was given the task of choosing one of these bodies without knowing which battlefield it had come from. The coffin containing the chosen soldier was transported across the Channel to London by train and boat, arriving at Victoria Station on 10 November. The other three bodies were buried near the chapel. The following day, 11 November, Armistice Day, the Unknown Warrior was taken to Westminster Abbey by horse drawn carriage. Among the soldiers, sailors and airmen in the huge procession that accompanied it were 100 service personnel who had been awarded the Victoria Cross, the medal that recognises the greatest bravery. It also included 1,000 widows who had lost not only their husbands but also all their sons in the war. It stopped at the newly erected Cenotaph where King George V laid a wreath on the coffin. We still lay wreaths at the Cenotaph today to remember those who have died not only in the First World War but in all the wars since then in which Britain has been involved. The procession then went on to the Abbey where the soldier was buried under a black marble slab brought from Belgium. The grave was filled with soil taken from the four battlefields. Thousands of people lined the streets on that day to see the carriage pass and, in the days that followed, it is estimated that 1,250,000 people visited the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior which shows how important it was as a focus for people’s grief. Many people still visit it today. You can find out more (including more details about the Cenotaph) here: BBC Bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zr8xgwx Fun Kids Live: https://www.funkidslive.com/learn/great-war/the-cenotaph-the-unknown- warrior-and-how-we-remember/# There is an archive newsreel recording of the journey of the Unknown Warrior here: https://youtu.be/giJlKBKzy-8 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Centennial of Honor: a Brief History of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Part 1
    Centennial of Honor: A Brief History of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Part 1 “We have had no national expression of any sort since the war ended that would give the people an opportunity to show their appreciation of the services over there of the young manhood of the nation and it seems to me it would be a very fine thing for Congress to make some provision for a ceremony that would give the people of the country an opportunity to do that.” – General of the Armies John Pershing On November 11, 1918 at 11:00am the guns on the western front of France fell silent and the “War to end all Wars” came to an end. After four years of brutal conflict and over 9 million military and 10 million civilian dead the world took a collective breath, paused, and began to count the cost of World War I. How many empires had broken during those years? How many advances, horribly destructive advances, had occurred in military tactics and technology? How many generations of young men were lost? Those questions soon turned to how to appropriately remember our fallen. To understand the history of our Unknown Solider and our selection process, first we must look to the French and English: and inquiry into our history and sacred duty is important as our nation prepares to commemorate the Centennial of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 2021. Unknown Brothers-in-Arms Setting aside the controversy of who first thought of the idea and when in 1916, both France and Great Brittan officially began the process of selecting one of their fallen to represent all the dead from World War I in 1919.
    [Show full text]
  • Last Post Indian War Memorials Around the World
    Last Post Indian War Memorials Around the World Introduction • 1 Rana Chhina Last Post Indian War Memorials Around the World i Capt Suresh Sharma Last Post Indian War Memorials Around the World Rana T.S. Chhina Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research United Service Institution of India 2014 First published 2014 © United Service Institution of India All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permission of the author / publisher. ISBN 978-81-902097-9-3 Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research United Service Institution of India Rao Tula Ram Marg, Post Bag No. 8, Vasant Vihar PO New Delhi 110057, India. email: [email protected] www.usiofindia.org Printed by Aegean Offset Printers, Gr. Noida, India. Capt Suresh Sharma Contents Foreword ix Introduction 1 Section I The Two World Wars 15 Memorials around the World 47 Section II The Wars since Independence 129 Memorials in India 161 Acknowledgements 206 Appendix A Indian War Dead WW-I & II: Details by CWGC Memorial 208 Appendix B CWGC Commitment Summary by Country 230 The Gift of India Is there ought you need that my hands hold? Rich gifts of raiment or grain or gold? Lo! I have flung to the East and the West Priceless treasures torn from my breast, and yielded the sons of my stricken womb to the drum-beats of duty, the sabers of doom. Gathered like pearls in their alien graves Silent they sleep by the Persian waves, scattered like shells on Egyptian sands, they lie with pale brows and brave, broken hands, strewn like blossoms mowed down by chance on the blood-brown meadows of Flanders and France.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unknown Warrior: a 4-Minute Film Teachers' Notes
    The Unknown Warrior: a 4-minute film teachers’ notes Watch the film here: https://youtu.be/FFav8-49XNo Transcript NAZIA: Mum, what’s that? AMAL: Ah, Nazia, that’s a very special grave, one that no one ever walks over. Some say it’s the most important in Westminster Abbey. NAZIA: A King or Queen? AMAL: No, not a monarch NAZIA: But someone famous? AMAL: No, not when he was alive. We don’t actually know who he was. NAZIA: I don’t understand. If we don’t know who he was, why is he buried at Westminster Abbey? AMAL: Because, that’s the Grave of the Unknown Warrior. Nearly nine million men from all over the British Empire fought in the First World War, approximately 6.5 million from Britain and Ireland, and 2.5 million from the Commonwealth. Places like: India; Pakistan; Bangladesh; Australia and New Zealand; the West Indies; Canada. The average age was 24. And though soldiers had to be over 18, 250,000 boys lied about their age. The youngest was 12 years old. For every nine men that served, three were wounded; often with injuries lasting the rest of their lives. One in nine were killed. Of those killed, 200,000 were missing and never found. Thousands of warriors, forever unknown. NARRATOR: The Unknown Warrior’s story begins in 1916, in a garden, in France. British Army Chaplain David Railton finds the grave of a fallen British soldier, buried underneath a simple cross, with the words ‘an unknown British soldier’. Back in Britain cries an unknown mother.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Has the First World War Been Remembered in Different Ways Since 1918?
    PAGE 1 ENQUIRY 8 Why has the First World War been remembered in different ways since 1918? Key stage 3 ENQUIRY OVERVIEW This enquiry is designed to give students some examples of how and why the First World War has been remembered in different ways and in different times and contexts since 1918. The initial stage compares a local war memorial with the Cenotaph in London, considering factors that would be useful for comparing similar memorials on a battlefields visit. The enquiry goes on to focus on five different interpretations (including works of art, memorials and a feature film) which were deliberately created after the War’s end to provoke particular emotional responses in their original audiences. All five sources could be investigated in turn, or fewer could be selected for teaching but deliberately chosen to illustrate contrasting interpretations of the First World War. The memorials in particular could be compared with those of other types and commemorating other nationalities on the Western Front during a battlefields visit. In the final activity students consider how such interpretations might be presented today and why these past interpretations of the War might generate different feelings in modern audiences to those intended by their creators. There are opportunities through this topic to make links to English (e.g. developing speaking and listening skills, writing imaginatively, creatively and thoughtfully, producing texts that interest and engage the reader), citizenship (e.g. looking at the actions individuals, groups and organisations can take to influence and provoke popular opinion) and geography (e.g. interactions between people and their environments, the location of places and environments).
    [Show full text]
  • Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard Schedule
    Buckingham Palace Changing Of The Guard Schedule Unpuckered Corky bump-start her endurance so trippingly that Westleigh animadvert very segmentally. Doggy and quintan Quintin often unswear some aftershaft contingently or sear harassedly. Undisordered Elvis still riven: unchartered and Ptolemaic Jeremy sneezings quite censurably but tritiates her hairpins unfavorably. And use them. What anguish the changing of these guard? Each guard changing of schedule of buckingham palace changing the guard! Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Defies Hurricane Irene Stays Open. Our tour to your hands on guard the reign of. Buckingham Palace Changing of state Guard cancelled to stop. Opinion process we witnessing a changing of liberty guard at Buckingham Palace John Griff is a broadcaster in Northamptonshire By John Griff. And priority for the benefits of buckingham palace gate doors, but never put together unlikely to guard changing of the buckingham palace connecting services or queen is. Under proud new AR 670-1 Soldiers traveling commercially on official business are authorized to whack the Army Combat Uniform or ACU. The Changing of all Guard in London at Buckingham Palace is at Horse Guards Parade is worth seeing you do. The formality and pageantry of the Changing of the accident at Buckingham Palace. Changing of peonies, all else you know that usually accompanies the tour activity bags and serious cases they are stabled in the palace changing of guard the buckingham palace walls. Changing the type at Buckingham Palace. What is among the most had not held every month to changing of buckingham the palace guard schedule for a very well as the underlying crime, is very busy event to skip and safety accidents during a london.
    [Show full text]
  • Reverend David Railton M.C. Exhibition the Unknown Soldier
    St Eanswythe Patron Saint of Folkestone Reverend The Parish Church is unique in the UK as it contains the bones of Eanswythe, patron saint of Folkestone. David Railton M.C. She was a member of an Anglo-Saxon regal dynasty: granddaughter of Ethelbert, the first English king to Exhibition convert to Christianity under Augustine. Fri Oct 30th to Thurs Dec 24th She is believed to have been abbess of the first at Folkestone Museum, nunnery established in England, about AD 660 on the 1-2 Guildhall St, Folkestone CT20 1DY Bayle These are thought to be the earliest verified remains of an English saint. St Eanswythe died in her late teens or early 20s; the cause of her death was unknown. Her relics soon became a focus of pilgrimage, and, in 1138, were installed in the present church. They were hidden in 1534 and were only uncovered 350 years later. St Mary and St Eanswythe Parish Church In the very centre of Folkestone between the shops The Unknown Soldier and The Bayle lies the beautiful Parish Church. A priory was originally built on the site in the 12th The Friends of St Mary and St Eanswythe are Century but that building was destroyed and rebuilt in delighted to welcome you to this exhibition which the 13th Century includes private letters. Membership is open to all and we welcome friends At the west end of the Nave of Westminster Abbey locally and throughout the world. is this grave of the Unknown Warrior, whose body was brought from France to be buried here on http://friendsofstmaryandsteanswythe.org.uk/ 11th November 1920.
    [Show full text]
  • Southwark Clergy Rebuke 'Partisan' Bishop
    THE ORIGINAL CHURCH NEWSPAPER. ESTABLISHED IN 1828 Alice’s THE experience scares us CHURCHOF all ENGLAND P15 Learning Newspaper from the Café Church, P9 NOW AVAILABLE ON NEWSSTAND FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 No: 6270 Black and Southwark clergy Asian rebuke ‘partisan’ bishop contribution to Church is By George Conger ONE IN 10 of the Diocese of South- The Rt Rev Christopher Chessun wark’s stipendiary clergy have signed a celebrated private letter to their bishop, the Rt Rev Christopher Chessun, rebuking him for his partisan management of the diocese. Delivered last week, the letter is under- stood to take issue with the bishop’s pref- erence of clergy living in same-sex civil partnerships to senior posts within the diocese, while marginalising traditional- ists. The letter, accompanied a public state- ment endorsed by 60 priests and nine parish councils, affirms the doctrinal principleS of the Church of England, which also urged the bishop to ensure that clergy he has appointed to high office conform to these teachings. The “Southwark Declaration” and pri- vate letter comes amidst a sharp financial contraction and declining church atten- dance in Southwark, coupled with the appointment of clergy living in same-sex civil partnerships to the posts of cathe- By Ashley Prevo dral dean, diocesan director of ordinands and canon chancellor. PARLIAMENT was the venue for a Complaints of bias in Southwark reception celebrating Black and Asian prompted evangelicals in 2012 to form him our concerns” including the appoint- warm welcoming meeting to him as soon enrichment of the Church of England. the Southwark Ministry Trust to divert ment of a new Canon Chancellor, who as he was consecrated.
    [Show full text]
  • David Railton's Account of the Origin of the Burial
    The Origin of the Unknown Warrior’s grave by Revd. David Railton, M.C. M.A. Extract from “Our Empire” November 1931 vol. VII At the request of the Editor I write to tell you how it came to pass that “the body of a British Warrior unknown by name or rank was brought from France to lie among the most illustrious of the land” in Westminster Abbey. “It was a great idea – in fact, an inspiration” said an English working man. And many others have said the same. They say well. For so it was. It came to me. It was somehow sent to me – I know not how – in the early part of the year 1916. It came by inspiration. But you want to know a little more of the manner of its coming? So you shall, indeed. I came back from “the line” at dusk. We had just laid to rest the mortal remains of a comrade. I went to a billet in front of Erkingham, near Armentieres. At the back of the billet was a small garden and in the garden, only about six paces from the house, there was a grave. At the head of the grave there stood a rough cross of white wood. On the cross was written in deep black pencilled letters “An unknown British Soldier” and in brackets underneath “of the Black Watch”. It was dusk and no one was near except some officers in the billet playing cards. I remember how still it was. Even the guns seemed to be resting, as if to give the gunners a chance to have their tea.
    [Show full text]
  • Tomb of the Unknown Warrior
    TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR Regimental Padre Reverend David Railton, M.C. was at Armentieres in France in 1916 when he saw a white wooden cross on a grave in a garden. On the cross were the words “An unknown British Soldier” and in brackets underneath were the words “Of the Black Watch”. As a result he gave a lot of thought to the fact that there were thousands of dead troops who had no known graves and consequently in 1920, after the war had ended and things began to settle down, he wrote to the Dean of Westminster proposing that an unidentified dead soldier from the battlefields of France be buried with due ceremony in Westminster Abbey “among the kings”, to represent the many hundreds of thousands of Empire dead, thereby creating a lasting focal point for the relatives of those troops killed in battle who had no known grave. This proposal was supported by the Dean and Prime Minister Lloyd George and also King George V. Brigadier L J Wyatt, Commander of British Forces in France, and Lt. Col. E A S Gell, the Director of Graves Registration, instructed that the body of a British soldier which would be impossible to identify should be brought from each of the four battle areas, The Aisne, The Somme, Arras, and Ypres, on the night of the 7th November 1920 and placed in the chapel at Saint Pol sur Ternoise, near Arras. The remains were laid on stretchers and covered with the Union Flag. Shortly after midnight Brigadier Wyatt closed his eyes and then rested his hand on one of the bodies to indicate his selection, and these remains were then placed in the shell of a coffin and the lid 1 screwed down.
    [Show full text]
  • THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR WWI Educational Resource Keystage 2
    THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR WWI Educational Resource Keystage 2 Written by Julie and Peter Daniel Acknowledgements The Dover War Memorial Project, Westminster City Archives and Westminster Abbey would like to thank the following for their support and participation in The Unknown Warrior Project: Russell Hepplewhite, Rebecca Hewes, Maciek O’Shea and Helen Eastman for their energy and enthusiasm in creating and performing with pupils from St Martin’s Primary School, Dover, “The Unknown Warrior” musicals on the 90th anniverary of the Warrior’s home-coming to Dover. Jonathan Boast for working with the Dover Scouts and Brownies to create a beautiful stained glass window, the centrepiece of the Unknown Warrior exhibition which began its national tour at Westminster Abbey during Remembrance 2010. To Laura Arendis, Lou Evans and Canon Jane Hedges for co-ordinating the Westminster Abbey tours. To all the staff and children who took part in the project from the following schools and organisations: St Martin’s Primary School, Dover All Saints Primary School, Chatham Westminster Cathedral Primary School Burdett Coutts Primary School, Westminster St Vincent de Paul Primary School,Westminster Birkbeck Primary School, Sidcup 3rd (St Martin’s) Dover Scout Group and 8th Dover Brownies And finally we’d especially like to thank The Heritage Lottery Fund whose grant of £28,000 made the project possible. Written by Julie and Peter Daniel Activities by Kimberly Gilbert Peter Daniel Julie Daniel Edited by Marilyn Stephenson-Knight Simon John Chambers Design by Camilla
    [Show full text]
  • History Remembrance Day COMPETITION the Story
    History Remembrance Day COMPETITION The Story When the First World War ended in 1918, about 800,000 British and colonial troops had died and another 200,000 were 'missing'. Some of these were prisoners but most were dead: either they could not be identified or they were never found. The men and women who died abroad in the war were buried there and many had 'no known grave' so that families in Britain were rarely able to visit a grave to mourn for the people that had lost. The Story In 1916, while he was in Northern France, the Reverend David Railton came upon a grave in someone’s back garden which had a marker with the words 'An Unknown British Soldier of the Black Watch' written on it in pencil. It gave him an idea. Perhaps one of these unknown soldiers could be brought back to Britain to represent all those who were lost. The Story It was important that the chosen Unknown Warrior could never be identified. To do this, on 7 November, the remains of four unidentified soldiers were brought to a chapel in northern France. Brigadier General Louis John Wyatt was given the task of choosing one of these bodies without knowing which battlefield it had come from. The coffin containing the chosen soldier was transported across the Channel to London by train and boat, arriving at Victoria Station on 10 November. The Story The following day, 11 November, Armistice Day, the Unknown Warrior was taken to Westminster Abbey by horse drawn carriage. Among the soldiers, sailors and airmen in the huge procession that accompanied it were 100 service personnel who had been awarded the Victoria Cross, the medal that recognises the greatest bravery.
    [Show full text]
  • 3931 Knights Batchelor Service
    Westminster Abbey A Service to Mark The Passing of The World War One Generation Wednesday 11 November 2009 10.55 am THE FIRST WORLD WAR At the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, the Armistice signed by Germany and the Allies in Marshal Foch’s railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne came into effect, bringing to an end the hostilities that had involved millions of people from countries across the world. The First World War had lasted four years, four months, and fourteen days. More than one million men, women, and children, Service and civilian, from across the British Empire lost their lives. The War left an enduring impact on those who survived, and on the nation as a whole as the country struggled to come to terms with loss on such an unimaginable scale. They were determined that the sacrifices of the World War One generation would never be forgotten. In marking the passing of this remarkable generation today, and as the nation falls silent at 11.00 am, we honour that promise. THE PADRE’S FLAG The Union Flag hanging at this service over the Grave of the Unknown Warrior, sometimes called the Padre’s flag, was flown daily on a flag post, used on an improvised altar, or as a covering for the fallen, on the Western Front during the First World War. It covered the coffin of the Unknown Warrior at his funeral on 11 November 1920. After resting for a year on the grave it was presented to the Abbey on Armistice Day 1921 by the Reverend David Railton, the Army chaplain who used it during the war.
    [Show full text]